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RESEARCH ARTICLE

Flat lower envelopes solve bounded monomial convexification on two-variable cones

Yaoran Yang1 Yutong Zhang1*
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1 School of Mathematics, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
Received: 31 May 2026 | Revised: 11 June 2026 | Accepted: 15 June 2026 | Published online: 29 June 2026
© 2026 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution -Noncommercial 4.0 International License (CC-by the license) ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ )
Abstract

Bounded monomial sets are basic relaxable objects in deterministic global optimization. Belotti's 2025 Mathematical Programming article established the upper envelope for two-variable cones and the lower envelope in dimension two, while leaving the lower envelope open in dimensions greater than two. We close this gap by proving that, in every dimension of at least three, the lower convex envelope over the bounded monomial set intersected with a two-variable cone is flat: after convexifying the restricted epigraph, the only lower constraint on the graph variable is the imposed lower value bound. The formula is independent of the upper value bound and the total homogeneity degree. The proof is based on a level-set convexification identity: every point in the monomial superlevel set inside the cone is either on the target level or an explicit convex combination of two points on that level. A single coordinate outside the constrained pair supplies the required compensation, which also explains why the result fails sharply in dimension two. Combining this lower-envelope formula with Belotti's known upper envelope yields the complete convex hull of the bounded graph for all homogeneity regimes in dimensions of at least three. We also give constructive certificates, separation conditions, a notation summary in the back matter, and reproducible numerical diagnostics showing that the two-point certificates are recovered to roundoff-level reconstruction accuracy over representative regimes.

Keywords
Convex envelope
Monomial
Two-variable cone
Global optimization
Epigraph convexification
Reproducible numerical experiments
Funding
None.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
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An International Journal of Optimization and Control: Theories & Applications, Electronic ISSN: 2146-5703 Print ISSN: 2146-0957, Published by AccScience Publishing